In the coming year, as the 150th anniversary of battles of the American Civil War are commemorated, and the War of 1812 is largely ignored by most people, American Voyages will feature more historical posts about these events. An emphasis will be given on exploring the remains of battle sites, with the usual attention given to arboreal detail on the side.
To this end, I figured I would do something a little different for a post today. To help place these conflicts in proper context, larger overviews of history could be given. However, those might also be boring! Furthermore, I like ranking lists. So, what happened since North America drifted into its current spot as the land mass we know and love, and why were things that happened so important?
Before we begin ranking, I am going to leave out two very crucial events, only because they go without saying as being highly influential in North American, and indeed world, history. Those events would be the migration of humans across the Bering Land Bridge (which is still the leading contender for figuring out how humans first got here), and the landing of Columbus on San Salvador/Guanahani. Furthermore, events considered will be events that happened in and directly impacted the continent. While, say, the defeat of the Spanish Armada was crucial in allowing other European nations to hedge their bets in beaver pelt country, it happened over yonder across the large ocean and did not mean that anyone specifically got any new territory that forever changed things in said pelt country.
Anyway, once people figured out that other people were already here and started caring more about the gold they may or not have rather than focusing on fashion changes in court at Madrid or London, what happened since, and what were the 10 biggest turning points?
10. The Creation of NAFTA.
While thinking about events that have impacted the relationship of all three nations of North America, this was the first one that came to mind. There had been dealings between the three before, beginning during the Second World War when Canada starting focusing military policies on the alliance with the United States rather than with maternal entity Great Britain. Mexico, being one of the Allied nations, was for the first time involved in direct formal relations with Canada in 1944, but not until NAFTA was the relationship anything more than lukewarm at best. NAFTA basically came about because free trade had already been established between Canada and the United States.
Bush the elder, being from Texas and such, was considering putting a separate system in place for Mexico. Brian Mulroney, Canada's prime minister at the time (the man at top right), got understandably nervous about this and suggested that maybe all three nations should be included in this venture. His concern was based off of a fear the cheaper labor costs in Mexico would direct U.S. trade there instead of to Canada, and brother, was he ever right. Corporations moved from both Canada and the United States to Mexico, and border towns such as Matamoros swelled in population due to the new maquiladoras opening up a deluge of new jobs. Many industries in Canada and the United States, meanwhile, found themselves in the position of having excess, expensive labor (compared to the Mexican counterparts). Things are changing, as Mexicans start to demand living wages, but they are changing slowly. In terms of the cost to Canadian and American manufacturing, NAFTA was short-sighted. For Mexican manufacturing, NAFTA was exploitative.
On the other hand, relations between the three nations have advanced rather rapidly as a result of NAFTA. When I was in Mexico City a few years ago, I saw quite a bit of Canadian commercial presence in Mexico. Nearly every third bank was from Canada, "Canadian food" (including poutine) was everywhere, and the number one foreign destination for quincineras was turning out to be Montreal rather than Paris. I spent a good hour talking to a few people in a cafe after they figured I was "Quebecois" (I kindly informed them of my Franco-Ontarian and Irish heritage instead), in French no less. They were ordinary people, cab drivers, waiters, etc. who actually sounded excited about Canada. Yes, these were isolated examples, but I am sure that such cordial relations would not have existed before the pact. Though created as a capitalistic venture and then partially out of fear, NAFTA has also resulted in the start of North American regionalism and has begun to powerfully influence some otherwise cold and rocky international relationships. NAFTA has definitely changed the continent, for richer and poorer.
9. The Completion of the Trans-Canada Railroad.
Canada was "created" in 1867, but very much like the early United States, the confederated provinces were hardly what one would call a happy family. Then, as now, much power was placed into the hands of provincial governments, and every province seemingly had its own agenda. As was the case with the thirteen colonies, the provinces were largely independent entities, even after territorial reorganization in 1791 and then under unification in 1840. Confederation alone was not enough to bridge the differences between provinces as diverse as Nova Scotia, Ontario, and distant British Columbia. John A. MacDonald, Canada's first prime minister, knew that the only way to assure unity between distant lands was to link them through travel and trade, just as the Americans had done with the railway that stretched from Omaha to Sacramento.
In 1881, at a little town called Bonfield, the venture was started with the first spike being driven down. Things took their time, as a number of difficulties hindered progress almost from the start. Officials as high as the prime minister were bribed and involved in scandal. Routes were argued almost constantly; difficult terrain, native possession of land, and local competition from Americans all served to impact just where the railroad would go. The Blackfoot agreed to allow the railroad to pass through their land, the American competition was simply ousted by placing the track as close to the border as possible, but the terrain was another story altogether. Canada, you see, has no easy pass through the Rockies as the United States does in Wyoming. Even Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada mountains has nothing on Kicking Horse pass. A gradient of 4.5%, the highest anywhere in mainline North America at the time, was the difficult reality faced by rail builders. In the east, the rugged and isolated terrain of the Canadian Shield was not being helpful either. Canada, it seemed, had nature working against its unity.
Aside from connecting the provinces, much of the railroad was built through largely unspoiled lands that remain sparsely populated to this day. The prairies did not fill out nearly as fast as the plains to the south in the United States did; they were either too arid (nearly all of the Canadian plains are arid and short grass) or too cold. Many people living in more fertile regions questioned the usefulness of the middle of Canada and were still more concerned for their own lands. In the end, however, the railway was completed. The overcoming of such difficulty proved to Canadians that they would and could make things happen in their beautiful but difficult lands, and other lines started cropping up everywhere. The reality of the situation also convinced different provincials that a unified Canada was the only way to ensure they would not be eventually swallowed by the United States. John A. MacDonald knew that a railroad worked for the Americans trying to solidify the bonds between east and west. It went a long way to ensuring the survival of Canada and gave us the political map that we have to this day.
8. The Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
By 1853, Manifest Destiny was no longer a dream for the United States of America. Americans were already pouring into the new states of California and Oregon, Mexico was hedged safely on their side of the Rio Grande, Canada was largely concerned with defending their borders rather than even close to considering war, and plans were being drawn up to divide territories into manageable units. The west coast, however, was over six months away for most travelers trying to cross the breadth of the continent. Vast plains, high mountains, and harsh deserts did not serve the make distances any lighter, and not long after the first lines were constructed between the great cities of the east coast were dreamers and businessmen thinking about making that travel time significantly shorter.
The problem, of course, was that a dreamer in New York had a different vision from a dreamer in New Orleans. Different worlds existed between north and south, and those worlds each had a different path to the west coast. Southerners wanted to see a railroad passing through their route that took advantage of the Gadsden Purchase. Northerners wanted to wrest control of migration away from slave holders (though undoubtedly they were also largely concerned with keeping profit up in their end), and argued that the great trails already ran through Nebraska and Wyoming to lands beyond. New York was not about to watch the Erie Canal corridor dry up as new transportation methods took over; Omaha was easy to connect to Albany. Chicago, needless to say, seconded that motion. Legislation was at a stand still, however, until the notable lack of southern interests in Congress, during the Civil War, allowed for a central route to begin construction in 1862.
Opportunity aside, Lincoln knew that rebuilding the concept of Union was going to take improvements in travel and communication. While it never came to pass, further division among north, south, and then west (and possibly Utah) might have been a reality had the railroad not come along first. Though much progress had been made in promoting the spirit of being American since the parochial days of the thirteen colonies, regional and state identities were still pretty strong. On top of this, there was all that vast open land that needed to be consolidated for Manifest Destiny to actually feel like the reality it had become. In 1869, when travel from Sacramento to Omaha could take six days instead of six months, the lands between started to feel a bit smaller.
One end result was that settlement increased and resources started to get easily consumed. Mountain timber reserves and the herds of Buffalo started vanishing rapidly, and thus the railroad, completed in the time frame that is was, became important for bringing about conditions that helped conservationists show the world the price of progress. In 1872, Yellowstone became the first National Park in the world. Another end result was that the Buffalo would be joined in near extinction by the people who had been around all along; Native Americans would dwindle once the west was truly open for conquest. Finally, the unity and ease of settlement afforded would act as a wake up call to the people to the north. Canadians would achieve confederation in 1867, and not wanting to see their own version of Mexico's 1846 come along, would make their own tracks by 1885. Mexico could probably breathe a sigh of relief as well; the Americans finally achieved what they wanted and would surely have no need to make more "purchases".
Stop by for the next four Saturdays to see the rest.
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